Dems' ballot requests surge in Colorado

More Democrats voted Monday; more in GOP have mailed in ballots.

Democrats in Colorado have jumped ahead of Republicans in requesting mail-in ballots this election, a development some observers see as further proof of Democratic momentum in the state heading into November.

According to numbers provided Tuesday by the Secretary of State's office, 23,000 more Democrats have requested mail-in ballots than Republicans. Less than a month ago, in late September, Republicans in Colorado held a 30,000-voter edge in asking for mail-in ballots.

Democrats also outnumbered Republicans in showing up Monday for the first day of early voting, by about 3,000 voters. But, because Republicans have turned in about 3,000 more mail-in ballots so far, the two parties are neck-and-neck in terms of turnout in the early stages of voting in the state.

"I think it matches what we've seen really pretty much all year," said John Straayer, a Colorado State University political science professor. "There's extraordinarily high interest on both sides, but the excitement quotient seems to be higher on the Democratic side. And that excitement appears to be translating into action."

Getting out the vote through mail-in ballots has historically been the forte of Republicans. In Arapahoe County, for instance, Republicans cast 48 percent of the mail-in ballots in 2004, when the county went for President Bush. Democrats cast 30 percent of the mail-in ballots.

This year in Arapahoe County, Democratic mail-in ballot requests are outnumbering Republican ones by about 2,500, according to the Secretary of State's numbers.

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"Even if the numbers were even," said local political analyst Eric Sondermann, "I would say that's probably a positive sign for Democrats given the Republicans' historic dominance of mail-in voting."

University of Colorado political science professor Ken Bickers, though, cautioned about reading too much into the numbers at this point, saying changes in the balance between the parties could have as much to do with how fast counties are getting through the piles of requests coming in as they do with political momentum.

Mail-in ballot requests continue to stream into county clerk's offices across the state, with the Secretary of State's office tallying 60,814 more requests Tuesdaymorning than were reported Monday morning. Statewide, the total number of requests — more than 1.5 million — represents about 48 percent of the registered voters in the state.

In some counties, including Jefferson and Arapahoe, close to 60 percent of registered voters have asked for a mail-in ballot, according to the Secretary of State's numbers.

The mail-in interest had one clerk, Denver's Stephanie O'Malley, pleading Tuesday for voters to be patient as her office works to get ballots out to everyone who asked for them. O'Malley asked voters who this month requested a mail-in ballot and have yet to receive it to wait until October 28 before calling to ask for a replacement or deciding to cast a provisional ballot at an early voting center.

She said voters who requested a mail-in ballot prior to October and have not received it should call 311 now and ask for a replacement.

"I understand the heightened interest in this election, but I respectfully ask the voters of the City of Denver to please be patient and to give their mail-in ballots a chance to get to them," O'Malley said in a statement.

Al DeSarro, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Denver, said the service is up to the ask of handling all the mail-in ballots. But, he said voters should make sure they put their ballots in the mail by Oct. 31 to ensure they reach their clerk's office by Nov. 4 and said people should also be sure to put the correct postage on the ballot, which in some cases is more than $1.

If a ballot has insufficient postage on it, the post office will still deliver it and charge the county the difference, DeSarro said,

"We do give election mail the highest priority," he said.

Meanwhile, Tuesday, Congressman Ed Perlmutter, D-Golden, sent Arapahoe County Clerk Nancy Doty a blistering letter questioning whether the county, which uses electronic voting on Election Day, is prepared for the election.

He urged her to err on the side of putting voters on the rolls in a controversy over voter registration forms where the applicants neglected to check a box. Perlmutter also encouraged Doty to have back-up paper ballots in polling places on Election Day, and asked the Secretary of State's office to appoint an election monitor for the county.

"As one of Colorado's most populated counties, there is no question that electronic voting problems in Arapahoe County could have a devastating impact on the federal and state-wide elections," Perlmutter wrote.

Arapahoe County is one of the few counties in Colorado that will not have paper ballots in polling places on Nov. 4. Instead, Doty said she will have back-up paper ballots at a central location on Election Day and will deploy them to polling places if needed.

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